Poor service at Always In Service

A local phone number doesn't mean a company is local.

When Frank Geosits Sr. needed a new kitchen door, he did what many people would do. He went to the phone book and perused the ads. .

The ad for Lehigh Valley Doors offered discounts for senior citizens and military veterans, plus $35 off any residential job.

"He presumed the fact that they had an ad in the telephone book [meant that] they would be reputable," his daughter, Sharon Geosits, told me.

The first inkling the company might be a fraud was when workers showed up to provide the estimate. It wasn't Lehigh Valley Doors that came to Geosits's home in Northampton, but a company called Always In Service.

Sharon Geosits said the rep tried to sell her father a $4,000 door out of a catalog. That was too much, but he selected a $2,000 door. The company didn't leave an itemized written estimate, she said, and didn't mention any discounts.

When Always In Service returned to install the door in May, Geosits said, they brought her father a different door, one that cost $399 more. The workmanship, she said, "was absolutely horrendous … it actually looked as though this was the first time they had ever installed a door."

Geosits's son, Frank Geosits Jr., said the family later learned from the door manufacturer that it sells the door for about $640. He said the installation looked like it was done by a third-grader, as the trim had been butchered, with a worker cutting it without removing it from the wall.

"I just couldn't believe that somebody would leave it like that," Geosits Jr. said.

Sharon Geosits said the company returned after the family complained, but didn't fix all of its mistakes, never provided the discounts and ignored repeated requests for a written itemized estimate.

I unfortunately wasn't able to help the family, as I never got through to Always In Service. I called twice and the company never called back. Seems its customer service isn't always in service.

But Geosits, 83, also sought help from the Pennsylvania attorney general's office. It says it's gotten to the bottom of what was going on. Earlier this month, it sued Always In Service, accusing the company of committing fraud.

The lawsuit alleges Always In Service misrepresented itself as a host of local locksmiths and door and window companies in phone books in several counties, including Northampton, Berks, Bucks and Montgomery.

Those ads included local phone numbers to trick people into thinking the companies were local, the attorney general's office said. But the lawsuit says all 300-plus phone numbers the company published under at least 16 company names went to the same place, the Always In Service office in Abington, Montgomery County.

Lehigh Valley Doors is not among the Always In Service aliases noted in the lawsuit. But I called all four numbers in the phone book ad that Geosits responded to, and all four got me a recorded greeting from Always In Service, not Lehigh Valley Doors. And the receipt Geosits got for his work was from Always In Service.

The lawsuit, which is on my blog at http://blogs.mcall.com/watchdog/, accuses Always In Service of misleading customers into believing it was a company near their home; inflating estimated prices; failing to provide itemized bills; doing poor work; and not doing work that was paid for.

Authorities say Always In Service lied about being accredited by the Better Business Bureau, employing certified master locksmiths and being family owned and operated.

The company and its officers "intentionally flood local telephone directories with local telephone numbers to lure consumers into believing [they] operate a local company and to induce them to select their services," the lawsuit alleges.

The company's "conduct, practices and representations constitute obtaining monies under false pretenses and through false representations, and constitute fraud," according to the lawsuit.

Always In Service is accused of violating the state's Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act by not registering as a contractor, and not providing adequate contracts to customers, including notifying them of their right to cancel their order within three days.

"This seems to be another case of a company taking advantage of trusting elderly people," Sharon Geosits told me in an e-mail asking for my help. "Everything about this situation is wrong. How many more elderly people or people in general did this company bilk out of money?"

"I thought I was the only one who was complaining," Frank Geosits Sr. told me.

The attorney general's lawsuit does not identity alleged victims, but says "numerous" complaints were filed, and authorities suspect there are other victims who have not come forward.

The lawsuit seeks restitution and fines, and to ban Always In Service and its officers from operating locksmith or home improvement businesses in Pennsylvania. The lawsuit identifies the officers as President Guy Halperin,of Philadelphia; Treasurer Yuvall Attoun of Newtown; and Secretary Rafael Mohar.of Philadelphia.